A Historic Memorial
A memorial in the garden of the Scheffenacker family in Strohbichlstraße acts as a reminder of the Black Death in Hof.
It consists of a tetragonal, box-shaped upper part with a pyramidal base. The stone has reliefs on its two sides, one of the plague saint St Sebastian and the other of Bishop Virgil, and shows Christ on the cross on its front.
Based on oral transmission, this is where a plague cemetery was located. The many corpses were laid down in layers in large trenches and covered with soil. A cross or other religious symbol was placed on top, such as this carved stone in Hof.
A second plague cemetery may have been situated next to today’s Mühlbergweg, before the steep incline leading to Fuschlerache. The previous generation of farmers at Tobiasgut Farm remembered that this was where grave flowers used to grow in the middle of the meadow.
Plague saint St Sebastian
To the west of Riedlstraße, near the edge of the woodland below Anzesberghof Farm, and close to the parish boundary to Thalgau, a cross acts as a reminder of the plague. This is where the neighbours meet every year on Hallow’een to say a rosary for the victims of the pandemic.
| »God help you« | Another reminder with which we can empathise today: First symptoms if somebody had been infected with the plague were coughing and sneezing, and those nearby would call out: »God help you!« This or similar phrases (»Health!«, »Bless you!«) are still in use today, often without any knowledge of their origin. |
Verwendete Quellen und Literatur:
Enzinger, Josef/Janschitz, Harald/ Michelitsch, August/Walch, Stefanie/Weiss, Josef: »Schätze der Kulturlandschaft, Klein- und Flurdenkmäler«, hrsg. von der Gemeinde Hof bei Salzburg, 2010.
